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Domestic passenger car market: Easter brings slump in March figures

Berlin, 04 April 2016

New registrations rise in first quarter – exports and production fall

After two strong months, the German passenger car market totaled only 323,000 units in March, owing to unusual effects that kept it at last year’s level. “Comparison of these figures with those from March 2015 is not especially meaningful, since last year’s Easter holidays occurred in April, whereas this year they came in March. In addition, March had one more working day last year. We should therefore wait to compare the months of March and April together,” stressed Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). The first quarter showed a rise of a good 4 percent in the number of new cars registered.

The timing of Easter also affected domestic incoming orders, which lost 11 percent in March. Orders arriving from Germany in the first three months of 2016 equaled the previous year’s level.

Domestic passenger car production in March came to 516,100 units (-7 percent). This fall is due to the lower number of working days and to the Easter holidays. Exports fell by 8 percent to 396,300 units.

In March incoming orders from abroad stayed around last year’s level, and in the first quarter their total rose by 1 percent.